


The Little Girl

by lesbianettes



Series: Lightyears [1]
Category: Chicago Med
Genre: Crockett is kind of a dick, Divorce, Gen, No he's a major dick, Pneumonia, Selfishness, Single Dad Crockett Marcel, Single Parents, Space Flu, Space!AU, astronaut!April, astronaut!Crockett, astronaut!Jimmy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-13
Updated: 2021-01-13
Packaged: 2021-03-17 21:54:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,037
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28732278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lesbianettes/pseuds/lesbianettes
Summary: Crockett is unwillingly left his daughter.
Relationships: Crockett Marcel & April Sexton, Crockett Marcel & Harper Marcel, Crockett Marcel & Jimmy Lanik
Series: Lightyears [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2106366
Comments: 2
Kudos: 4





	The Little Girl

**Author's Note:**

> written for my Chicago Med Premiere Flash Challenge

Crockett looks out the window at a new planet’s horizon, one of the hundreds he’s seen in his travels. Every single one is a new, beautiful adventure to learn about and explore. This is why he’s out here; to see the universe, and learn about it, and write the books his daughter will study when she’s old enough to put two feet beneath her. 

He thinks about her often, though he feels so little when he does. Maybe it’s the fact that he’s never met her, nor seen her beyond photos his wife sends, but he doesn’t feel any connection to his own daughter. Crockett thinks about Harper the way he thinks of any other person- she exists, she’s important, but not relevant. 

So he stares at the rising sun over the edge of the planet and admires its reflection off the water. It’ll be fun to explore, to chart and learn the ways of the local fauna. This planet isn’t classified as sentient, but its creatures are intelligent in the way other primates are back home. They might be close to communicable. He excitedly goes to put on his space suit when April puts a hand on his shoulder. 

“Your wife called,” she says. “Again.”

“I’ll call her back later.”

“It’s about your daughter.”

Crockett sighs. “I’ll call her later, okay? We’re getting ready to start the landing process.”

April presses her lips together, but doesn’t argue with him. She doesn’t like the strained relationship between him and his wife, but he doesn’t think it’s any of her business. Women, he thinks, get a little too emotional about these things instead of thinking rationally. If his wife’s role and his were switched, he would understand her need to be among the stars, and do whatever it took to make that happen for her. She’s being selfish. 

He goes to the bunks and pulls on his suit, protective and sleek and with an oxygen supply should the air be contaminated. Their research shows the air on this planet is breathable, but it doesn’t hurt to be prepared. He loves this. This is the final frontier, and he has been given the opportunity to explore it. This is what he was born to do. 

“Crockett,” Jimmy yells, “your wife is calling!”

With a resigned sigh, Crockett goes to the comms room. She probably wants to yell at him again to come home, cry when he says no, and beg him to read to his daughter so she knows what his voice sounds like. Really, it’s the same script every time, and that gets pretty fucking boring after a while. He throws himself into the call chair, thanks Jimmy with a kiss to his cheek, and answers the ring. 

“What do you want, Claire, we’re about to land.”

Her tired face appears on the screen in front of him. “I’m not doing this with you anymore, Crockett.”

“What, so you’re gonna leave me?”

“You left first,” she reminds. “Anyways, I’m going stellar too. Harper’s in a pod on your coordinates, she’ll be landing on your ship within an hour.”

His jaw drops. “What? No, you can’t- how do you expect me to take care of a kid?”

“You’ll figure it out. Just like I had to. Goodbye, Crockett.”

She hangs up first, something she has never done before.

He’s stunned. He doesn’t know how to take care of his daughter, and the travel might have made her sick, and he’s never even met Harper. This isn’t fair, not when he has to go to the surface in only a few minutes. No one will be on board to receive Harper’s pod at all. He turns to ask Jimmy what to do and sees the whole crew watching, as if this wasn’t humiliating enough. 

“Crockett, you’re staying back to receive the baby.”

“What? That’s not fair-”

April cuts in, “She’s your kid, Kett.”

“And you’re the ship’s medic, so you’re most equipped to deal with space flu if she developed it,” Jimmy tells him. “Which, given her age, she probably did.”

Crockett wants to yell at them that he doesn’t want this, but it isn’t their fault his wife decided to be such a piece of shit and completely give up on their family. So he nods, despite his frustration and disappointment, and asks them to stream their exploration up to the ship. Jimmy reluctantly agrees. 

Only minutes later, the ship informs them a pod has landed, and Crockett goes to the airlock to retrieve his daughter. It’s a bit strange, to be finally meeting Harper, but he swallows his apprehension as he slowly pries open the shell to get to the child within. Harper is bigger than he thought- she’d come up to his knees, standing- and looks so much like her mother. She has Crockett’s soft ringlets, but Claire's button nose and soft eyes. 

She reaches for him with small, chubby hands, and mumbles, “Daddy?”

To be honest, he’s surprised she recognizes him. He picks her up, intending to carry her in, but he doesn’t quite know how to hold a baby, and it shows. Eventually, he settles her awkwardly on his hip, and she buries her face in his shoulder. 

“Oh my God,” Maggie says, “she’s so cute!”

In answer, Harper coughs wetly, spitting up phlegm on Crockett’s shirt. Gross. He can’t be mad, though, because he knows she didn’t mean to. It’s just- it’s weird, and he doesn’t know how the fuck to raise a child. The first step, at least, is simple- he’ll take her to the medbay for decontamination and to give her medicine and breathing treatments for the space flu. It’s inadequately named, he thinks, because flu implies some sort of contagious illness. In reality, it’s simply the body’s stress response to traveling so far, so fast. It causes headaches, pneumonia, rapid heart beat, low blood pressure, and, in extreme cases, gangrene or madness. 

With a quick exam, it seems Harper just has pneumonia, which is why she coughed up on him, but he still now has a child to take care of- a sick one at that. He doesn’t know what he’ll do.

But it seems he’ll have to figure it out.

**Author's Note:**

> tumblr @neworleansspecial


End file.
